Composite photography



Dec. 21, 1943. B. C. HASKIN 7 COMPOSITE PHOTOGRAPHY Filed March 1, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet l zaao zen.

I N VEN TOR. firm/v61 675/044 ATTORNEY.

Patented Dec. 21, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,337,327 COMPOSITE PHOTOGRAPHY Byron C. Haskin, Beverly Hills CaliL, asslgnor to Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application March 11, 1941, Serial No. 382,786 1 Claim. (CI. 8816) This invention relates to composite photogment for producing composite motion pictures raphy wherein a photograph of a foreground according to the present invention.

scene is combined with a photograph of a back- Fig. 2 is a schematic view illustrating an arground scene in such a manner as to make it ape rangernent of the occulting shutters, with repear that the foreground was in fact, photo spect to the camera shutter.

graphed at the situs of the background. There Fig. 3 is a modification of Fig. 2 illustrating are known methods for accomplishing this, such shutter arrangements for increasing the speed of as the traveling matt method according to which occultation.

a photograph is prepared or the foreground 8.0- Fig. 4 is a set of curves illustrating the occultaon, and a print is take 'i'sfrom this to prepare a tion of light with the shutter arrangement of matt, for printing a holelinla background, where- Fig. 2.

by the foreground can be printed in that hole. Fig. 5 is a set of curves illustrating the occulta- In the above matt process, the foreground and tion of light obtained with the shutter arrangethe matt appear on separate films which usually ment of Fig. 3. shrink different amounts, thereby; making it dif- Fig. 6 is a plan view of an adjustable indicator ficult to match the matt and its print. This is for varying the setting of the occulting shutters.

overcome according to the present invention by Fig 7 s a seot al V ew on l ne 7- of F1 6 arranging the foreground picture and its matt Fig 8 represents a series of films used in and on the same film whereby shrinkage is equally produced by the method and apparatus of Fig 1 effective on both. i according to one plan.

Also according to the prior matt process, the Fig. 9 illustrates a series of films used in and foreground is associated with its background produced by the m thod and pp at s o 1 scene in a later printing operation. An object acc to another planof the present invention is to print the back- Referring in detail to the drawings, the fore these foreground images can be associated with latter is illuminated by white light fr m l mp 5 t the printed image of the background scene, and S utter is P d d r p 4 d p s in the photograph 01 the foreground action are pro. synchronism with shutter 8. Also, a rotatable duced separately on the same him while photo- 40 shutter 9' is provided for lamp 6 and it operates graphing the'action, by the use of a lighting arin synchronism with shutter 9.

rangement which alternately illuminates the amera 7 is driven by a ree phase motor I0, jftoreground and a plain ground or screen behind shutter 8 by a three phase motor H, and shutter I 9 by a three phase motor I2. Shutters 8' and A further object of the invention relates to 9 are driven by three phase m to s nd 2.

increasing the frequency of occultation so that it e circuits for which are similar to those shown will not be annoying to the people who are within "for motors H and 12. e motors in, H and I! the field o the lights being occulted; are driven from a distributor i3 driven by a D C interlocking and adjusting the screen and forephase line It through the switch I 8 to the field ground occulting means into proper ph e l windings of all the motors such as Ill to i3 and tion with each other and With 1; e camera heir rotors are inteiconnected as shown.

For further details of the invention referenc wo of the blades oi switch H? are closed, which may be made to the drawings wher n supplies powei to interlock the motors ID to H the foreground lamp rotatably mounted in a housing 35 the relative positions of the background shutter B, (illustrative of 9, 9) the foreground shutter F, (illustrative of 8, 8') and the camera shutter C are shown. ground shutters 3, 8, 9, 3' is provided with an ad- .iustable indicator H as shown in further detail in Figs. 6 and 'I, So that the shutter can be adjusted to and locked in various angular positions with respect to its driving motor. The camera shutter C in Fig. 2 has a similarly graduated indicator I8 which rotates with it. Indicator l8 with a suitable index reference point the motors Hi to I! are interlocked with their rotors stationary, a reading is taken of the camera indicator i8, and then the background and foreground shutters B and F, Fig. 2, are ad- ,iusted to have the relative positions shown in Fig. 2. use being made of a plumb bob or other stationary index point for indicators Thereafter the remaining blade of switch i6 is closed, with the result that the shutters B and F rotate in synchronism at a certain speed. while the camera I operates at double the speed, by reason of a gear drive 2|) between the camera motor l and the camera 1. By this arrangement, the aperture 2| (Fig. 2) of the camera receives only steady light from either the foreground or screen 2, as illustrated by the curves in Fig. 4. In that figure, the numbers on the horizontal axes indicate the angular extent, while the vertical axes of the top and bottom curves represent the variation of intensity of the foreground and background lamps respectively. the middle curve on the vertical axis illustrating the extent of opening of the camera aperture 2|. The flat peak 22 of the top curve illustrates that the foreground lamp is at its maximum intensity throughout the interval that the aperture 2| is open as shown by the peak 23. At a later instant of time, the flat peak 24 representing uniform maximum intensity of the ba kground lamp. shows that this maximum intensity is maintained throughout the interval that the camera aperture 2| is open as shown bv the peak 25. Also. the straight line portion 26 on the bottom curve shows that the background lamp is cut off by its shutter when light from the foreground lamp is being admitted to the camera. Also. the straight line portion 21 on the horizontal axis of the top curve shows that is cut off by its shutter, when light from the background lamp is admitted to the camera.

The adjustable coupling and indicator for each of the shutters 88', 9-4! is the same as shown in Figs. 6 and 7 wherein for example, the details of the coupling device for the foreground shutter F are sh own. The shaft of the foreground motor II is indicated at 28 in Fig. '7. This shaft is connected through a suitable coupling 29 to a reduced section 30 and to a further reduced section 3| which carries a key 32. The extremity of section 3| is threaded at 33 to receive the nut 34. The shaft 23 and its extensions 30 and 3| are suitably supported on the casing of the motor The graduated indicator 38 which may be a paper sheet is glued to the front of blade F which is suitably secured by screws such as 31 to a rotatable bushing 33 carried in the housing 35. ries a semicircular arcuat-e internal gear 33 adapted to match with the circular gear teeth 40 on the periphery of the gear 4| the bore of which slidably fit the key 32. To change the angular position of the shutter F with respect to the shaft Each of the background and forethat car-

23, the nut 34 is backed off, thereby permitting the gear 4| to slide outwardly on key 32 until the teeth are disengaged from the gear 39, whereupon the bushing 38 with the shutter F (and indicator 36) carried thereby may be rotated to the desired position, whereupon the gear 4| is moved inwardly into mesh with gear 39 and the nut 34 is turned to lock the gear 4| in the position shown in Fig. '7.

In order to occult each light a plurality of times for each film exposure. I modify the shutters as shown in Fig. 3, wherein each of the background shutters B is provided with a sector opening and a diametrically opposite sector blade 42. The foreground shutters as represented at F are similarly provided with a sector openin 43 and a diametrically opposite sector blade 44. The openings 46 and 43 and the blades 42 and 44 are all of the same angular extent, and I provide the camera shutter C with a sector blade 45 which is double that angular extent, as the camera shutter operates at double the speed of the background shutters B and the foreground shutters F. The openings 48, 43 permit light from their respective lamps to illuminate their respective subjects I, 2, while the blade 45 prevents the illumination which is permitted by openings 46 and 43 from reaching the film in the camera 1. In this way I increase the speed of occultation to a point where it is not annoying.

The apparatus above described may be employed in several ways to produce composite pictures. For example, I may take a. background negative taken at 24 F. P. S. and print it in a step printer to double its number of frames. so that there are alternate clear frames between the successive background frames 8| of the key positive 33 as shown in Fig. 8. This key positive film 83 I then run in the camera in front of the usual negative and photograph the action i as explained above. The key positive 33 is threaded in the camera 1 so that when a clear space 80 is in front of the aperture, the shutters 8, 9, are in position to admit light from the foreground i. but not from the plain ground 2. This results in exposing the negative 34 as shown in Fig. 8 wherein a normal negative image 85 of the foreground action appears on alternate frames, interspersed with other frames containing an unexposed portion 86 which is a silhouette of the foreground I, surrounded by an image 81 of the background scene, resulting from the fact that the light from the ground 2 serves to print the background scene on the key positive 83 around the foreground l which is dark. A positive print of the negative 84 is indicated at 88 wherein alternate frames such as 89 comprise normal images 90 of the foreground action surrounded b matts 9|, while the remaining alternate frames such as 92 comprise matts 93 of the foreground action surrounded by the background scene 94. The matts 9| and 93 are complementary in shape. By the use of a step printer, the positive 88 may be used to print its alternate background scenes 34, onto successive frames of a film and then by a further operation in the step printer, the foreground images 90 may be printed into the portions protected by the matts 93, to produce the dupe negative 95 wherein the successive frames show successive kinematic phases of the foreground action with its associated background scene.

According to a modification, I do not run the key positive 83 in the camera, but merely thread it with the usual single negative film. When the lights 36 are occulted as above described, there results the exposures shown on film 90' in Fig. 9, wherein alternate frames such as 9| contain a normal negative image 92' of the foreground I surrounded by an unexposed field 93', while the remaining alternate frames 94', contain an exposed field 96 surroundin an unexposed portion 95 which is a silhouette of the foreground i. A positive print of negative 90' appears as shown at 91 in Fig. 9 wherein alternate frames such as 98 contain a matt 99 of the foreground surrounded by a clear field I00, while the other frames of the pair have a normal positive image IOI of the foreground I, surrounded by a matt I02 where the background scene is to appear. Matts 99 and J2 are complemental in shape. The positive 91 is run in a step printer with a background film and raw stock to print the background scene through alternate frames 98 onto successive frames of the raw stock. The film 91 and the raw stock are run a second time through the step printer to print the foreground into the background scene. The raw stock thus exposed,

5 90 and 91 of Fig. 9 may be used in other ways to produce composite films.

I claim:

Means for occulting light for composite photography comprising the combination of a fore- 10 ground light shutter having a blade, a background light shutter having a blade, means for driving said shutters at the same speed in opposite phase, an opening in each of said blades and an auxiliary blade opposite each of said open- 15 ings, a camera having a shutter blade, means for driving said camera shutter at twice the speed of said other shutters, said camera shutter blade BYRON C. HASKIN. 

